Hedda Gabler's Obsession with Happinness
Finding happiness can be a struggle in many people's lives. Happiness comes from one allowing his/her self to deal with emotional stress and to accept the life that he/she has. In the story of "Hedda Gabler," Henrik Ibsen's shows how people's sadness can be the cause of a woman's happiness. Hedda Gabler struggles in this story to find happiness by making the people around her miserable. Hedda's upbringing in a rich household is the cause of her sadness and it results in the actions she commits towards others. Her longing to be loved ruins the lives of everyone around her. Hedda's yearning for attention causes her to make Mrs. Elvsted miserable, to ruin Eilert Loevberg's dream, and to kill herself because of the loneliness she feels inside of her.
Hedda gets pleasure out of torturing Mrs. Elvsted. She makes sure that Mrs.
English: The image of the title page of the Henrik...
English: Susanne Sheehy and Tom Bateman play Hedda...
Eilert Sundets gate, Christiania, ca 1904Elvsted is not happy because Mrs. Elvsted is in love with Eilert Loevberg, Hedda's past love. Hedda has had feelings for Eilert Loevborg for a long time, but because of Loevborg's social status, Hedda couldn't marry Loevberg. When Eilert asked Hedda about why Hedda ended it with Eilert, she said, "Yes, when I realized that our friendship was threatening to develop into something-sometheing else. Shame on you, Eilert Loevberg! How could you abuse the trust of your dearest friend?" (p 1493) She had to marry someone that her parents could accept. She married George Tesman, a research graduate in cultural history. George was a very intelligent man whose social status fit the one that Hedda's parents wanted for their daughter. Marrying Tesman only made Hedda more depressed and emotionally unstable. Tesman was not the man for her. She explained to the Judge why she had to marry...